With the recent advances in radio frequency ablation, cardiac electrophysiologists have been able to effectively treat a variety of ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias with catheter techniques. Most catheters currently in use employ a single ablation tip that can be steered with one or two degrees of freedom. Although some centers have been able to achieve a level of proficiency with these devices that limits procedure time to 2-3 hours, many individual cases still require five or more hours and, often, a repeat visit with more radiation exposure. The majority of this time would be eliminated if one rapidly locates the tachycardia focus, circuit or pathway.
Examples of endocardial apparatus and devices, include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,212, Gelinas et. al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,147, Chilson et. al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,351, Landman et. al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,791; Hattler et. al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,057, Howes; U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,064, Desai; U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,597, Cosman; U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,786, Siegel; U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,115, Marks; U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,151, IMRAN; and U.S. Pat. No. Re.32,204, Halvorsen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,151, IMRAN, is directed to an endocardial mapping and/or ablation system that includes a plurality of longitudinally and radially spaced apart electrodes that are disclosed as being useful in performing endocardial mapping accurately and rapidly.
The intracardiac ablation catheter of the present invention is an improvement over prior art devices, notably the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,151, the advantages of which will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiment is set forth in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.